It has emerged that the great majority of those arrested during the neo-Nazi march in Leipzig, Germany on Saturday were left wing counter-demonstrators, who threw rocks and fireworks at police and lit fires in the street.

Around 150 right wing and neo-Nazi marchers were met by many times more left wing and ‘anti-fascist’ protesters, possibly as many as 1000. Police deployed around 800 officers.

In all, 69 police and several demonstrators were hurt during the weekend’s disturbances, police confirm. About 50 police vehicles were also damaged and 23 arrests were made.

Left wing protestors set bins alight in the street to blockade roads in an attempt to stop the right wing march, and the majority of those throwing missiles at police were from the counter-demonstration.

“There are also other violations, but mainly it comes down to this charge,” police spokesperson Ricardo Schulz toldDie Welt. “There are a number of proceedings against masked people who were throwing stones. This was an excess of violence.”

Arrests included the Jena city youth pastor, Lothar King, who address the left-wing crowd before the violence erupted.

Police were forced to use tear gas, stun grenades and water cannon to disperse the left wing thugs. Firefighters who had arrived to put out fires and fire crackers exploding in the streets were also attacked, police Tweeted.

“The fact that criminal acts full of destructive rage took place during Advent on a main shopping street and impacted uninvolved families with children while shopping is intolerable,” said Saxony’s interior minister Markus Ulbig in a statement.

“Whoever attacked police because they reject our rule of law will feel the consequences in full force.”

The right-wing groups are thought to have included the neo-Nazi party Die Rechte (the Right), Offensive für Deutschland (Offensive for Germany), and possibly a division of the PEGIDA movement called Thugida.

Lutz Bachmann, the German founder and leader of PEGIDA, wrote on Facebook: “Well, that is the result, if you are not going deal with terrorists with the required degree of hardness”.

He said: “Pegida strollers defend themselves when they get pushed aggressively”.